


The Black Rose

by RippleInthePond



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Sick Character, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7687153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RippleInthePond/pseuds/RippleInthePond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every flower holds a meaning. What do flowers mean to you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Black Rose

**Author's Note:**

> Tragic little one-shot. I do not own Doctor Who

The Black Rose  
By RippleInThePond

  
OoOoO

The Doctor and Rose were walking through the streets of Kalador, the realm of the flowers. All flowers were sold here, and they were the most beautiful and luxurious flowers in the entire universe. It had been one of the rare peaceful trips that they experienced as they had walked through the endless fields of flowers, taking in it’s majesty. As they walked, something caught the Doctor’s eye and he froze. Rose turned to him, her eyebrow raised in a silent question.

The Doctor smiled down at her. “I’m alright. I just realized that there is something I had to do. Go to the tardis. I will be there soon, okay?” She nodded although she was suspicious and left towards the tardis, the key swinging in her hand. As soon as she was far enough away, her turned and walked to a cart not too far away. He picked up a bouquet of rare gold and silver flowers.

The woman behind the counter smiled softly. “Are they for a loved one?” The Doctor nodded, albeit a bit hesitantly. The woman smiled, the corners of her eyes wrinkled with old age. She shook her head slightly looking down before whispering nostalgically. "My husband used to buy me flowers, even though they were everywhere. Everyone thought it was so silly, but I thought it was sweet." She looked up at the Doctor."Anyways, gone now. He died a while ago, but it still hurts. Take them for free. It is very clear how much you love her.”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that. Please, let me pay.” She smiled a bittersweet smile. “Please, I insist.”The Doctor nodded again, whispered a small thank you, and then walked toward the T.A.R.D.I.S. When he arrived at the door, he hid the flowers behind his back. He opened the doors to find Rose sitting in the jumpseat. She was sitting in the jumpseat, dozing off slightly.

He smiled at her, pure love and affection in his eyes. He walked up to her and when he got close enough for her to hear his footsteps, her eyes slowly opened."Hello." She whispered drowsily a smile on her face. The Doctor gave a soft smile before giving a small "Hello." He walked closer and stood in front of her.

"I have a gift for you." Rose's eyes lit up as she woke up quickly and sat up straight, staring at him expectantly. He chuckled softly, pulling the bouquet out from behind his back.  
When Rose saw the bouquet, she smiled a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. The Doctor panicked and pulled away slightly. “If you don’t like them I can return them.”

"Oh no! I love them! Its just..." The doctor looked quizzically at Rose. "Just what?"  
Rose took a deep breath. "Flowers hold meanings when they are given. But, flowers will eventually die. The death of the flowers implies that the meaning they hold is lost. Those flowers hold a meaning to you and I." She smiled a sad smile before looking the Doctor straight in the eye."I don't want the meaning that these flowers hold to die." She looked down and a single tear streamed slowly down her cheek.

The Doctor's eyes softened and he softly grabbed her chin and lifted it. He wiped away the tear before before pulling her into a hug, his arms wrapped firmly around her. He turned his head and whispered into her ear. "Ok. No more real flowers. No dead memories." She nuzzled his shoulder. "Only immortal flower for our never-ending memories." She whispered back. They stood there for a while, holding each other. After some time, he leaned back and said softly. "Let's go to the library, okay? The film is your choice." Rose nodded and half hugging they walked to the library for some very necessary TLC.

The next day, he gave a book full of the meanings of every flower and very day after that, he would give her an immortal flower. A flower full of memories.

OoOoO

The Doctor had seen the signs, but had chosen to ignore them. They had started small. Her appetite began to dwindle. Then, she was was always exhausted. Then, her muscles began to ache without ever using them. She got migraines that felt like her skull was splitting. She then experienced on and off paralysis in her arms.

Rose was very sick, and the Doctor was ignoring the signs, too afraid to acknowledge their implications.Suddenly, her condition plummeted. She wouldn’t wake up easily. Her eyesight began to disappear. Suddenly, she was unable to move anything at all sometimes. He finally took her to the medical bay and ran tests to figure out what was wrong. When the results appeared on the screen, the Doctor froze. His eyes began to water, but Rose passed it off as a trick of the light. "Doctor, what is it? What is wrong with me?" The Doctor turned to Rose, and tears spilled out of his eyes and onto his cheeks.

It could no longer be a trick of the light.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a broken cry. He cleared his throat lightly and paused as if saying it aloud would make it more real. Then he replied in a rough voice overflowing with emotion, tears still streaming down his face. "You are dying, Rose. And there is nothing I can do about it." The Doctor's voice cracked and his body began to shake. Rose went pale and her eyes widened. The Doctor let out a broken sob and scooped Rose up into a hug.

"Nothing?" She sobbed. The Doctor shook his head and pressed his nose into her neck, as if trying to memorize her scent. She squeezed the Doctor as hard as she could in her sick state and cried into his shoulder. “I promised you forever!” Her voice shattered and she sobbed, drenching his jacket in salty tears.

The sobs began to calm and soon the Doctor looked over to see that Rose had cried herself to sleep. He gently lifted her legs with his right hand and cradled her against his chest. He carried her to her room and carefully tucked into bed, so he would not wake her.After he tucked her into bed, he walked to his room taking slow steps with his drained body. When he arrived, he slowly opened his door and stepped inside.

When his door clicked shut, he began to grab the lamp next to him and threw it across the room. He began to throw everything he could. Books, tools, papers, everything.  
He kneeled down and picked up a picture frame and was about to throw it when he saw that it was a picture of him and Rose. Mid-throw his arm stopped and it gradually drifted to the ground. His head hung in defeat, the Doctor slowly lifted his arm and cradled the picture to his chest.  
He began to cry, harder than he had with Rose. Harder than he could ever remember. He began to rock back and forth and he screamed into the room. “Why?! Why do I always lose everyone!”

If you were to walk into the room, you would have found a man lying on the ground, clutching a picture to his chest, with his eyes closed in a fitful sleep. You would have found a man who lost everything and he still would lose more. You would have found a man whose soul was shattered, his demons haunting him freely.

OoOoO

The Doctor was completely and utterly desperate. As he began to realize that he couldn’t cure her on his own, he began to seek help. He looked for the best healers in the universe. He traveled to the best hospitals to ever exist. He searched for miracle workers. All of the people he had begged for help had said the same thing.

They couldn’t help her.

The Doctor eventually decided that in her last days, that Rose should be with her mum. Jackie had slapped the Doctor as hard as humanly possible, but she hugged him, thanking him for bringing her home for her last days.

They admitted her into the hospital, and the Doctor was always by her side. He had brought their old flowers into the room with her and every day, he would bring her a new flower and would lay it on her bedside table. Sometimes it was allium. Others it was a pink carnation or a helerium. There were so many more, but the red roses were always Rose's favorite, for they told her the words that he would never and could never say.

When a nurse finally asked why he always brought in fake flowers, Rose gave a weak laugh and responded with what she had once told the Doctor. "They will never die, so neither will all of the memories that they hold."

The Doctor was in a state of despair, his soul filled with anguish and pain.

Rose, his oh so lovely Rose, was dying and he was absolutely helpless . He sat down next to her in the hospital room and for the first time since he found out about what would become of Rose, he began to cry. He slowly leaned over and whispered in her ear with a broken voice. "Rose Tyler, I love you."

She stirred slightly and opened her eyes. She gave the Doctor a smile so small it barely existed. She then spoke, in a soft voice rough with disuse. "My Doctor, I love you too."  
She then closed her eyes with a blissful smile. The steady pulse in the room became one long monotone note.  
Doctors and nurses rushed into the room, pushing the Doctor aside, away from Rose, and then out the door. He stood watching through the window, unable to speak or move as they tried to restart her heart. He felt as if he were hollow, unable to feel anything except to mourn that which he had lost. The doctors slowly began to stop running around urgently. The nurses picked up the clipboard and wrote the time of death. One of the doctors came out and put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

OoOoO

  
It was the day of the funeral and the Doctor sat in the wardrobe room in the tardis.'It is time, my Thief' The Tardis whispered into his mind.On autopilot, he lifted himself out of the chair and got changed. Not into his pinstripes, but into the suit that always brought bad things. 'I guess that is another event to the list.' He thought sadly.The Doctor slowly exited the T.A.R.D.I.S and walked to the graveyard and when he arrived, he saw a tombstone next to that of Peter Tyler's.

_Rose Marion Tyler_   
_Born_   
_June 13,1986_   
_Died_   
_September 27,2010_   
_Loving friend and daughter_

The ceremony began and the Doctor stood next to Jackie as she sobbed. People walked by and spoke, but no one saw the tears that ran down his face. No one saw the hearts that broke as he watched her be lowered into the ground, never to be seen again.

When the ceremony was finished, a woman in a suit quietly walked over to the Doctor.  
"I assume that you are THE Doctor?" He turned to look at her, his hearts empty and shattered. "Yes, I am." he said in soft, hushed tones. "Please, go away. I just want to be alone.”

The woman's eyes became understanding as she nodded.

"In a moment. This was her last request."The Doctor looked at her, a face of confusion coming forward against his pain. She smiled sadly and stepped aside. in the view of where she had been was a truck which was full of all the flowers he had ever given her."She wanted you to have them." She handed him a card and then walked away.  
He slowly looked down at the note he had been handed and began to cry all over again.

Hello Doctor. If you are reading this, then I am gone.  
I just want to ask you to do something for me.   
Have a fantastic life, my Doctor, and never ever forget.

He read the card again as he walked over to the gravestone, running his fingers across the words. He began to cry even harder, his chest constricted with grief at the loss of her and guilt that he couldn’t save her. He slowly pulled a fake black rose from his pocket and laid it at the base of her tombstone. He sat, thinking of her smile. Of the sound of her laugh. Of the days long gone. When the Doctor knew he would break if he stayed any longer, he stood up and walked to the truck the woman had shown him. The one that held memories of a love now lost.

Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Allium-Prosperity  
> Pink Carnations-I will never forget you  
> Helenium- Tears  
> Red Roses-Love  
> Black Rose-Farewell


End file.
